


Rise

by Brightstone



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-16
Updated: 2020-02-16
Packaged: 2021-02-28 03:28:43
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 913
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22747084
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Brightstone/pseuds/Brightstone
Summary: Tragedy strikes as the final battle is won. Who will be left to mourn the fallen?
Relationships: Hermione Granger/Harry Potter
Comments: 4
Kudos: 57





	Rise

She didn’t see the spell being cast. Between swatting Lucius Malfoy’s curses back at his fellow Death Eaters and being constantly on the move over the broken terrain of the Hogwarts Courtyard, the carefully aimed dark curse escaped her notice until it was too late. The piercing burn through her chest caused her to stagger before falling to her knees. All that saved Hermione from a coup de grace from Malfoy was an overpowered Reductor curse from Neville Longbottom forever ending his machinations. She idly noted the overwhelming cascade of magic that rendered the remains of Bellatrix Lestrange unrecognizable to even her closest associates in retaliation for her being struck down.

A choking feeling filled her lungs as her heart began to falter and blood flooded her torso, causing her to become lightheaded. Hermione barely noticed Madam Pomfrey’s frantic motions over her wounds that refused all healing. She rasped with blood spattering her every word, “Ne-Neville… Stasis…” Her trembling hand pulled a blood-stained scroll from her pocket and pressed it into his hand. “P-Promise… me.”

Tears streaming down his face, Neville nodded and with a complex wand motion fulfilled her last wish.

“Mister Longbottom!”

He shook his head, “Hermione is the brightest witch I have ever known, no offense. I think she wants to hold on long enough to see that Harry has won and say goodbye. She… she’s not going to make it.”

The healer’s nostrils flared, “Just watch me, Longbottom. You might learn something.”

Nodding weakly, he stood to give her room before unrolling the scroll and reading what she gave him.

ooo

Harry didn’t see when the spell hit, as he was locked in battle with Voldemort, but he could feel a cold heaviness filling his chest. Spells flying with desperate savagery, he slowly overwhelmed the now panicking Dark Lord before ending him forever with an overpowered piercing charm to the forehead.

Staggering, he felt his heart laboring in his chest as he made his way to his fallen love. Seeing Madame Pomfrey’s wand deftly flicking, he gently halted her movements as he painfully dragged Hermione into his arms.

“MISTER POTTER! Put my patient down! I am trying to save her life!” The outraged mediwitch seethed.

He shook his head as his pulse slowed. “It’s too late,” he said hoarsely.

Feeling a hand on his shoulder, his fading vision recognized one of his oldest friends. “Harry, mate. It’s… Let Madam Pomfrey do her job.”

He coughed as a trickle of blood fell from his lips, “Sorry, mate. She’s gone.” He brushed his fingers through her hair as her body lay unmoving. “I’m… not too far behind.”

The crowd stilled as his words sank in, Ron shook his head in disbelief, “No. NO! I won’t let this happen! Pomfrey… please?!” His voice catching as his heart broke.

Harry laughed faintly, “I wish it was that easy. If-“ His words fell silent as the Chosen One breathed his last.

The last survivor of the Golden Trio fell to his knees and cradled his fallen friends for the last time, “No… NO! HOW?! He… He didn’t get touched…”

“Ron…”

The shattered Weasley looked up to see Neville’s anguished expression, “There was nothing to be done.” He handed the broken boy a scroll, “Hermione gave me that before being put in stasis after the spell hit. She… She knew she was going to die and had to hang on long enough for Harry to win.”

Trembling fingers unrolled the bloodstained document, and it fell from his nerveless fingers.

_[Let it be known, there is no greater Love nor Magic than that of two souls uniting._

_Harry James Potter and Hermione Jane Granger’s souls met on December 24, 1997.]_

“Soulmates?”

The crowd gasped as Harry’s fate became clear. No soulmate long outlived their soul’s other half.

His eyes screwed tight in anguish, he didn’t notice the faint light emanating from his friends’ bodies, but the sudden commotion made him look around in question. As their bodies began to crumble into ash, he panicked and tried dragging them back together, “NO! WHY?!”

Neville, his great heart broken as well, demonstrated his strength as he dragged Ron from the ashes. “Ron, there’s nothing you can do. They’re gone…” The last coming out as a harsh whisper, tinged with pained disbelief and wishful thinking.

Ron’s mentally and emotionally numbed form was enveloped by the grieving arms of his mother, Molly. Similar sights were witnessed throughout the field as the survivors tried to draw some small comfort in living to see another day.

One figure stood apart, her tear-streaked face tilted to the sky and her arms raised as if in genuflection. Luna Lovegood, often overlooked as an oddity, became a beacon as despite the tears, her face was split with a joyous grin. Outrage and offense fill the survivors at her attitude until she spoke again, “They Rise.”

A faint song began to drift on the wind in the broken courtyard as from the ashes, a pair of phoenixes burst into brilliant flame and song, lifting the spirits of the assembled masses.

Stepping away from his mother, Ron’s voice trembled, “H-Harry? Hermione?”

_“It seems our journey is not yet complete, old friend. Unfortunately, this is one adventure you cannot follow.”_ A familiar voice slipped into their minds.

_“We have to go now, Ron. Everyone… But you’ll see us again. Count on it.”_ Hermione’s voice rang clear as a bell before the pair spiraled into the sky and beyond.


End file.
